Crabby season

As the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union (FFAW) and Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) remained in a crab price dispute as of The Beacon's Monday deadline, affects of the standoff were already felt by those whose lives depend on the seasonal fishery.

Basil Goodyear, a fisher from Lumsden and an executive board member with the FFAW, said he only knew of three boats from his area who were fishing and selling product to the Fogo Island Co-op, the only processor purchasing shrimp at $1.35 per pound.

That price, which was set by the province's price-setting panel, has not been an agreeable one for processors, who are not purchasing product. Last week, ASP offered to pay $1.19 per pound, with $1.09 per pound paid up front plus a dividend to be paid at the end of the year based on market returns.

That proved untenable for the FFAW, which has also asked for financial help from the provincial government to get the fishery running.

Speaking to The Beacon's sister paper, The Telegram, last Thursday, fisheries minister Clyde Jackman said providing assistance under the union's terms could prove legally risky.

He said the union asked government to provide $100 million to hold 35 per cent of the crab quota. Such a move would conceivably keep product from being dumped on the market and driving the market price downward.

The move - also known as inventory financing - is one Mr. Goodyear would support.

"If we could do that, the $1.35 wouldn't be an issue. The market price in the United States is $3.75 for a five-to-eight ounce section. The market barely ever goes over $4, so the market price is not that bad."

However, he said the processors' minimal access to cash last year resulted in product being dumped on to the market at an excessively low cost.

"We have too many processors with no access to (cash), and they just have to sell their product. We can't hold on to it, and we can't do business as we should. We can't feed the market as they need it - we have to sell all our product, and that creates problems."

He can understand the government's position, as it is not its responsibility to provide inventory financing for an industry problem.

However, without its help, Mr. Goodyear is unsure of whether a solution could be reached.

Missing out

The dispute has hurt Mr. Goodyear's fishing season. Good water conditions early on in the crab fishery, which started April 1, would have allowed him to get his pots out before weather took a turn for the worse, with high northeast winds creating rough waters.

"There's no ice, and I think I can only remember one year where we were fishing in the latter-part of April for crab, because usually we would be sealing. But, we didn't do that this year, because there's no market for seals ... we would have been gone April 1 if the buyers were buying."

Mr. Goodyear said he never considered contacting the Fogo Island Co-op to check on the possibility of selling crab to its plant, as he did not expect the price dispute to continue into the third week of April.

"Right now, they've got too many boats, and they can't handle the ones they've got," he said.

Thus, his boat has remained tied to the dock in Lumsden.

The impasse between harvesters and processors has also spelled trouble for plant workers. Paul Kean, the FFAW representative for plant workers at Beothic Fish Processors' Valleyfield plant, said his co-workers are missing out on valuable work hours.

"Last year, we started the first week of April, and all 300 of our employees were back to work by the third week," he said.

As of last Friday, maintenance workers were the only ones with any duties to tend to at the plant.

"We've got two weeks off our season, and you just don't get it back later on," he said, adding the extra crab going to Fogo Island will likely result in less crab coming to his plant if and when the fishery fully opens.

Last year, plant workers from Valleyfield were able to obtain enough hours to qualify for Employment Insurance, but Mr. Kean said he is uncertain whether or not make-work projects will be necessary once this year's season concludes.

Making matters worse, he said some plant workers will soon run out of payments they have lived off since last season concluded.

"We've got employees in the next week or so starting to exhaust their EI due to the fact they're not back to work."

info@ganderbeacon.ca